Luna's Second Chance

Learning to live

*Lily*

The days since Dex's murder had been very dark. It'd been six months and I was an empty shell. We should've never went there.. I know that pack like the back of my hand. I should've seen the ambush coming. My husband paid for my ignorance with his life. The pack was at a total loss for an alpha, though Kelson tried. Kelson was the Beta and Dex's right hand man. He had done his best to hold this pack together but he wasn't a leader and his grief almost matched my own. So the pack looked to me as Alpha. How was I supposed to be a leader when It took all of my energy to leave my bed? I stared longing at the left side of my king sized bed. It remained untouched from when they were turned down.. Oh, how I missed him. Waking to his warmth and his mouth on mine. I ached, it'd been so long since I'd felt his strong arms around me. I was incredibly lonely but I couldn't move on. It felt like I was betraying him at the very idea of being wrapped in someone else. I had loved Dex since I was 16, almost a decade ago. We'd had such a beautiful wedding. But no earthly beauty could rival that of our bond. But that was gone, and I had to move on. I gathered my thoughts and rose from the bed. I had meetings and training today. Time to head downstairs for breakfast.

I arrived at the table after everyone else. The bustling dining room instantly quieted in my presence. Everyone looked at me as if I were made of glass. Fragile. I hated it but it was just because they cared. And maybe they were right. Their once powerful Luna couldn't even use her gifts. It seemed the mate bond truly fueled the magnitude of my powers. I could barely access them now. I was hopeful some training up might change that. Kelson was watching me intently as I ate, chatting with two omegas at his end of the table. I took Dex's place at the head and he took mine at the other end.

"You ready to train?" he said after we had cleared our plates.

"I am ready, hopefully today we'll have a breakthrough." He smiled at me warmly, the sincerity reaching his eyes. We walked through the combat training grounds to an open field a half mile behind our pack house, where we had been practicing the last several months. It was mostly bare except a small pond. I needed this to work.. I had loved my gift since a little after I had found Dexter. I could influence the elements and had gotten pretty damn good at it. I felt power knowing I could yield such an extravagant gift. It came in handy for so many things, especially fighting off attacking packs. I could usually devastate an entire pack on my own but if the elements failed us, our hand to hand combat was still a force to be reckoned with. I readied myself to use whichever element Keson called out.

"EARTH!" Kelson shouted.

I pushed my hands out in front of me and made a fist. Only a small mound of dirt piled up by my feet. Damn it!

"That's okay, Lillian! It's something. WATER!"

He tried his hardest to be supportive.

I pushed my hands out again and tried to summon the water from the pond. This time a stream shot out and drenched Kelson, causing his signature white shirt to cling to his chiseled chest. God, he's beautiful! I chastise myself for even thinking about it.

"Yeah. that's my girl!" Kelson shouts and I turn the shade of a firetruck. I want to belong to someone but not Kelson. And the idea of being with anyone else tears me apart, truly at war with myself. We didn't even get a chance to practice the rest as an Omega named Dawson came into view. "LUNA! There's been an intruder captured close to the pack house." He shouted. Kelson and I both shifted and our wolves took off. We arrived in no time at all. Warily, I shifted back into human form, at the Shack just off the pack house. I quickly clothed my body. I walked inside our jailhouse which stood next door. My eyes were met with a handsome stranger. There was a pull between us. Fully ingulfing me, like a fire burning hot. I just gazed at him. He was sweating, my guess from trying to escape. He was surrounded by my wolves, tied to a chair just outside of the cells. He and I only in our human forms. "Identify yourself and what business you have in my territory." He looked up from his hands and our eyes finally meet. The dark blue eyes pull me in.

'Mate. Mate. Mate.' repeats in my head. Absolutely Not. Nope. He opens his mouth but closes it again. I can see he feels it, too. "My name is Trevlan Delaney, and this is my brother's territory." The wind knocks out of me. I'd never met either of Dex's brothers. They had both been labeled rogues by the time we'd even met. I didn't want a mate and it sure as hell wouldn't be him.. I knew what complications could arise. I turned to Kelson "He is to leave this territory and never return. We don't need any Rogues." I turned my attention back to the sexy man in front of me and I feel the pull again. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts I say "Do not come back here or you will be met by a punishment far worse than death." I leave the jailhouse in a hurry and head upstairs. I no longer had the strength for the day. Of course I would find a second mate, which is rare alone. But of course, it had to be Dex's brother. I'm sure their mother would approve.

I just hoped we had the strength to stay away from one another. I already knew how intoxicating the mate bond was. Did he?